“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…” (Ephesians 1:3).
Immediately after the Apostle Paul gives his opening salutation to the Ephesians and tells them they are saints in Christ who have received grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, he then breaks into a doxology: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “blessed” comes from the Greek word “eulogeo” from which we get our English word eulogy. A eulogy is a message of praise and commendation; it’s a declaration of one’s goodness. And since God alone is good (Matt. 19:17), He is the only one worthy of eulogy. So when we gather together to worship our first and foremost purpose is to give praise, honor, and thanks to our God. This is appropriate behavior for every believer because we have received the grace of God and are now at peace with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ. The very thought of God’s saving grace coming to people who are utterly undeserving and unworthy of any good thing from God should cause every believer to break forth in wonder, love, and praise to God. That’s what the realization of God’s grace does — it leads us to doxology. It leads the redeemed “to praise God from who all blessings flow!”
Praising God is the main duty and privilege of every person redeemed by Christ. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:6 that we were saved “To the praise of the glory of God’s grace.” In Ephesians 1:12 we read: “…that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” And in Ephesians 1:13-14 the Apostle Paul tells believers that we were sealed with the Holy Spirit “who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Do you understand that giving praise to God is a fundamental duty and privilege in your life as a believer, or is going to worship on the Lord’s Day to praise the Only Blessed God a burden to you? When you realize the grace in Jesus Christ that God has extended to you as an unworthy, undeserving, wretched, Hell-deserving sinner does praise, reverence, and thanksgiving to God immediately spring forth from your soul? You see, the giving of praise and thanksgiving to God is a barometer of the Christian life — no, praise and thanksgiving are not going to be perfect in this life, but these qualities will definitely be the direction of your life. In other words, if praise and heartfelt giving of thanks to God is not something you delight in and continually practice in your life then you have not experienced the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Why? Because saving grace always leads to praise as the Apostle Paul demonstrates in our text: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…” (Ephesians 1:3). Have you received God’s saving grace? Then diligently, zealously, and unashamedly practice giving praise and thanksgiving to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of all our worship and praise.